


Summer Storm

by QuoteMyFoot



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Just Add Kittens, Makeover, Pampering, depressed character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 06:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20326276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuoteMyFoot/pseuds/QuoteMyFoot
Summary: On an overcast day, Hilda takes the opportunity to show Marianne a bit of the care and attention she doesn't give herself. But Marianne seems to be worried about something else...Written for FE Gen Week, Day 3:rain/rest.





	Summer Storm

Hilda was bored, bored, bored. She'd managed to get out of doing chores today altogether, but that meant there was nothing to do _at all. _Taking a walk was no good, because the sky was full of dark clouds, and she was sure they were in for a bout of unseasonal rain.

Hilda sighed. _Isn't there anything to do here? _

She spotted Marianne over by the window, peering at the clouds with a downturned expression. Hilda had no idea if she was more upset than usual, since she nearly always looked like that. You hardly ever saw Marianne smile…

_Oooh, that gives me an idea!_

Marianne never took as good care of herself as she deserved, and Hilda always felt worse on the inside when she was feeling icky on the outside. Maybe if she could show her a simple way to look pretty every day, something she could manage easily, she'd feel better! Nothing cheered a girl up like a few compliments at the start of the day, right?

Grinning, Hilda marched up to Marianne and tapped her on the shoulder. She let out a cute little squeak of surprise. "Hey, Marianne, can you help me with something?"

"I—I don't know..." Marianne looked down. "I always mess things up..."

"No, no!" Hilda said. "I've just been thinking about changing my look, and I need someone to model on. You know you're the only one with a complexion like mine." A filthy lie; Marianne had this flawless, smooth skin that was to die for. Hilda's skin always looked blotchy before she put her powder on. "You don't have to do anything except sit there, I swear!"

Marianne still looked uncertain, glancing at the dark sky. "I… um..."

"Come onnn! Please?" Hilda grabbed her hand and used her best smile. "It'll be fun, I promise!"

"Ah..." Marianne blinked at her for a moment before her cheeks turned pink. "O-Okay then."

Hilda punched the air with excitement. This was going to be _so good. _Marianne would come out looking so stunning, everyone would be bowled over. "Come on, let's go to my room."

In the upstairs dorms, Hilda hummed to herself whilst she considered what to do first. Maybe the hair? Find something to get it up and out of the face, not too complex. A cute little bun would work, but how to incorporate Marianne's signature plait… aha!

Hilda grabbed the brush and got to work.

"Wh-What are you doing?" Marriane asked.

"It's just a new hairstyle," Hilda said, slowing unpinning Marianne's hair. "Wow, this is actually really complex! You must be so good with it! Maybe you can try it on my hair later?"

"Sure..."

Hm. Her hair was a bit greasy. Probably taking your self didn't rank high on the list of priorities when you were sad all the time. Luckily, she had a solution for that too. She just had to make Marianne think she was doing Hilda a favour! Easy peasy!

"Oh, I got this _present _from my brother the other day." Hilda didn't actually roll her eyes but she made sure to use the _rolling my eyes _tone of voice. "He found this, like, dry shampoo or something, they make it with magic or whatever. Then he spent half a letter talking about how important it is to look presentable for the troops when out on campaign and he said I should try it? Excuse me, does he think _I'm _going out on campaign?"

She made sure to go on in this vein for some time.

"But then in his recent letter he was asking how it worked and I don't have anything else to talk about, so… ugh, he's so annoying. Marianne, could you take it for me and test it? My brother got _so _mad when I didn't answer his last letter. It's made with ice magic, I think, maybe you could work out how to do it..."

By that time, she'd finished the hair too. A lace braided bun, a fairly simple updo considering what Marianne's preferred hairstyle was. Mirror time!

"What do you think?"

"Um..." Marianne blinked at her reflection. "I think… it would look really nice on you, Hilda."

Hilda would've asked if Marianne liked it herself, but she could already see the way she was twisting her head in the mirror, touching her hair as though surprised it belonged to her. Another win for Hilda. The fringe still needed tidying up, but it was really obvious how pretty she was without all those loose strands of hair hiding her face away. _Goddess, I'm so good!_

"Okay, now for some make up!" Hilda said. "This is always the best part of a makeover."

Marianne jerked her hand away from her head with wide eyes. "Make up?"

"How can you have a new look without make up?" Hilda pouted. "You promised you'd help!"

"Ah… right." Marianne ducked her head again. "Um… sorry."

"It's okay, it won't take long!"

Now, what colours to choose… pale blue was an obvious choice of eye shadow, to compliment her hair, but there were those big brown eyes… a bit of bronze kohl would just make them shine! _And then a pale colour for the eyes—not too pale, don't want to make her look washed out…_

Hilda hummed under her breath as she worked, ignoring Marianne's anxious fidgeting—she was always doing that, nothing out of the ordinary, Hilda thought, until she realised her eyes kept being drawn to the dark clouds outside.

"Do you think it will rain?" Marianne asked, biting her lip.

"I guess so," she replied. "There's tons of clouds. Ugh, I hate the rain. My hair is so long that if it gets wet, it's just like having a freezing waterfall down my back. We're not even supposed to have rain at this time of year! It's so unfair."

"Mm…" Marianne still looked worried. "It's easy to catch cold, too..."

"And no one wants to get sick." Hilda stood back for a moment to admire her handiwork and nodded. "Okay, I'm almost done! Then we can go get everyone's opinion!"

"Opinion?!" Marianne squeaked, turning away from the window so fast that Hilda nearly put blush on her nose. "You mean..."

"Well, it's no good creating a new look if you don't know what everyone thinks of it!" Hilda said. "Not that I don't trust your opinion, but it's good to hear from lots of different people..."

She carried on gently chattering away until Marianne began to relax again. The poor girl was always so nervous around people! She didn't seem to have many friends, or any female influences. She only ever talked about her father or her adoptive father… Hilda could relate, since her father and brother had always been big influences in her life, but at least she had, like, aunts and things to show her how to look cute.

Giving Marianne back some confidence was going to be a long and painful journey, but it would be worth it in the end. And Hilda really did want to know how she did her hair like that. Imagine doing something that complex… well, not every day, since Marianne clearly slept in it at times… but at least a few times a week. Exhausting. Much better if Hilda could get a cute girl friend to do it for her, heh.

"And we're done!" she declared, finally satisfied. "Aw, you look so nice! C'mon, let's go find all the boys."

Hilda tried to usher her out towards the study rooms, where everyone was probably hanging out, but Marianne lingered by the window, uncertain. "It started raining..."

"Hm?" Hilda stuck her hand out the window and frowned. "It's only spitting, but I'll get you my cloak."

"Oh, that's not what I..." Marianne's protests died as Hilda wrapped it around her shoulders. "Th-thank you. Don't you want it?"

She shrugged. "Back home is really mountainous, so the cold doesn't bother me so much. I'll be fine."

"But..."

"No buts!" Hilda resorted to grabbing her by the shoulders and steering her towards the stairs. "Now, let's go!"

* * *

The first person they spotted on the way to the lecture rooms was Dorothea, which was a blessing, since she was fully incapable of being unpleasant to anyone and had great taste to boot. She made sure to linger over the structure of Marianne's cheekbones and how well the bronze kohl brought out the colour of her eyes. Hilda could not have done better herself.

The rest of the Golden Deer were just loitering about in the halls and stuff. They found Raphael and Ignatz next. Since Raphael was entirely made of muscle and niceness, Marianne couldn't find anything to doubt when he said she looked good. He _also _said that she needed to tone up and invited her to come to training with him but even Marianne had the assertiveness to politely decline that.

Ignatz was cute but by the Goddess could he go on. Raph went off to train and they listened to colour theory talk for, like, an entire five minutes. It made Marianne smile, though, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Finally, Hilda found the people she had been counting on the most: the Professor and Claude. They were in deep discussion in the Golden Deer's lecture hall, but broke off when the two of them entered.

"Well, _hello._" Claude waved them over. "You two seem like you've been busy."

Marianne haltingly explained Hilda's lie about using her as a model for a new look. Claude, of course, saw right through it, and looked at Hilda with a raised eyebrow.

'_Compliment her or die,' _Hilda mouthed over Marianne's shoulder.

"Well, if it even looks half as good on Hilda as it does on you, I'm sure she'll be the envy of all the girls," said Claude, who knew what was good for him.

Professor Byleth gave Marianne a once over. "You look nice."

She, too, was a woman tragically lacking in feminine influences. _Marianne's crippling self-esteem comes first, but you're still on my 'fix list', Professor. _

"It's really starting to come down, now," Professor Byleth said, apparently deciding that the 'complimenting Marianne' conversation was finished—which, uh, over Hilda's dead body. Metaphorically. "Do you still want to head to the training grounds, Claude?"

"What?" Marianne whirled around to see the windows and gasped. "Oh no!"

And without another word, she ran off in the direction of the gardens.

"Hey, wait!" Ugh, all her make up was going to run and look awful. Hilda clearly needed to remember the 'no wet weather' disclaimers next time. "Marianne!"

She hesitated at the edge of the covered walkway. It really _was _heavy rain, coming down in sheets, and Marianne still had her cloak. She'd be soaked through in a minute.

...But Hilda couldn't help but wonder what had been so urgent to Marianne that she'd been feeling anxious about rain all afternoon, so she grimaced and braced herself for some misery. _Goddess, I hope you appreciate this friendship, Marianne. I'm making real sacrifices here!_

It only took a few minutes of searching to find Marianne in one of the patches of garden that was rarely used by students, but by that time, Hilda was soaked right through to her skin. She spotted her kneeling by some patchy bushes that had seen better days. For some reason, she'd removed the cloak and was holding it over the greenery. Hilda groaned. _Marianne, I was hoping you would be dry, at least… _

Couldn't get any worse now, at least. She stomped over and was about to ask what on earth Marianne thought she was doing when she heard a tiny mewling sound, nearly lost over the patter of the rain.

"_Oh!_" Hilda said.

In the bush, there was a damp black cat and five adorable kittens. She didn't think she had ever seen ones so small before – they might only be a few days old. Their tiny eyes were squeezed tightly shut and even their ears were miniscule.

Even she couldn't be too mad about the rain in the face of such adorableness. She really wanted to reach out and scritch one of their teeny baby kitten heads, but the mother cat was glaring at her in a way that said maybe _don't. _Still, it was impossible to be human and not be moved by baby kitties. "They're sooo cute!"

"I helped Soot find somewhere out of the way to have her babies," Marianne said. "But then those rain clouds came unexpectedly, and I was worried they would get sick..."

Is that what had been bothering her all this time? "You should've said something!" Hilda sighed. "Well, what do you want to do with them now? They can't stay out here in the rain."

"We can take them to my room," Marianne said, absently. "I managed to dry the kittens off a little, but they're still pretty cold… they should be inside, where it's warmer."

"You're going to need some way to get them up there." Hilda paused, trying to think. What do cats like to nest in? "Would a box do? I know where I can grab one from."

"Oh! That would be perfect!"

"Wait right here. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Hilda could barely believe she was volunteering to come _back out _into the rain again, but that was the power of baby kittens for you.

The Golden Deer lecture hall wasn't too far away, and luckily, Hilda had correctly remembered the box Professor Byleth left on the desk for submitting papers or whatever. She dashed in and grabbed it, tipping the papers unceremoniously onto the floor.

"Ah…"

Hilda blinked. _Shit, weren't you guys supposed to be leaving? _"Oh, hi, Professor!" She raised the box in front of herself. "I'm just borrowing this. It's an emergency!"

Byleth looked at the papers on the floor and sighed.

"I'll help you pick them up, Teach." Claude's lips were thin with suppressed laughter. "Good luck with the emergency, Hilda."

_Ugh, don't draw more attention to me, dummy!_

The Professor glared at Hilda, who gave her the most blazingly innocent smile she could muster and legged it out of the hall, shouting, "Thanks, Professor!" over her shoulder.

She heard Byleth call something after her, but it was drowned out by the hammering rain, and therefore she could pretend not to have heard anything.

It was a bit futile by this point, but Hilda raised the box over her head to keep some of the rain off her. It ran down her sleeves and down the inside of her arms instead. Gross, gross, gross. Heavy rain was the worst.

"Oh, you found it!" Marianne beamed when she saw her, which raised Hilda's spirits despite the weather. "And the inside is still dry! Thank you so much, Hilda. It's okay, kitties, we can get you inside safe and dry soon… Hilda, if you could hold the cloak to keep everyone dry whilst I move them into the box…"

Hilda had to kneel there in the mud whilst Marianne moved everyone over, even the mother cat who needed a lot of coaxing and encouragement. _That's it. I don't care __**how**_ _cute they are, I'm never getting a cat of my own._

Even after that, they had to awkwardly carry to box between them, still sheltered by the cloak, all the way up to Marianne's room on the second floor. Hilda was cold and muddy and wet. Worst of all, the make up she'd applied to Marianne had run in the rain, giving her dark rings around her eyes not unlike one of the kittens, black and white. It was like it was wearing tiny little glasses! And another of the kitties had a black patch on its face shaped like a heart!

…Alright, maybe the kittens still held some appeal. Still, Hilda was relieved when they reached the shelter of the dorms.

"Look, see? No more rain now… It'll be all nice and warm soon! I promise!"

Despite the smudged kohl turning the dark circles under her eyes very literal, Marianne was beaming. Hilda wondered why she was acting so upbeat until she realised she was talking to the cats. She collected up her cloak from where it had been unceremoniously dropped and trudged up the stairs behind Marianne. _Hey, I helped… don't I get any sweet nothings whispered to me? _

But it was kinda fun to listen to Marianne talking without stuttering for once! It turned out she had this melodic, elegant way of speaking when she really got going. Hilda would've bet good money she had a lovely singing voice too. Singing, a gift with animals, and stunning looks… Marianne could've been a fairytale princess straight out of the stories. Hilda would've been ridiculously jealous if it wasn't obvious she hated herself.

She sighed. _The world is full of injustice. But never fear—Hilda's here. _

It was no good to rely on her for battlefield stuff, but to be a supportive friend, to make Marianne realise there was so much about herself that was great? Hilda was totally perfect for the job. Still, she wished it could be done without her having to get quite so cold, wet, and muddy…

Marianne only seemed to remember Hilda existed when she had the kittens and mother carefully stored under her bed and had sacrificed a petticoat for them to use as bedding. Then she couldn't _stop_ falling over herself with apologies.

"Hilda, I—you've been so nice to me and all I could do was—you'll catch a terrible cold—and your _cloak—_I'm so sorry, you should just leave me and..."

Hilda had honestly liked it better when she was being ignored and Marianne was happy. "Really, it's fine," she insisted, making herself excessively cheerful out of spite for the negativity. "C'mon, we rescued some kittens! What girl doesn't want to perform such a heroic deed?"

The mother cat meowed, which Hilda decided to take as agreement.

Marianne stared at the floor, so Hilda's beaming smile was lost on her. "But..."

"Look, really, stop worrying about it!" she said. The assertiveness only made Marianne shrink in on herself more, and Hilda cursed her carelessness. _Think, think… _"Hey, how about we get into some warm, dry clothes, and then I can come over for tea and we can think of names for the kittens? You can't tell me you haven't had ideas already. The one with the eye markings totally says _Ignatz_ to me."

Peeking out through her fringe, Marianne chewed at her lip uncertainly. She just had to be given a little nudge to make her think of it as a favour for Hilda, instead of as a reward for herself when she didn't deserve nice things.

"Anyway, I'm totally out of tea, I forgot to stock up this month." _Lie. _Hilda rolled her eyes. "I am sooo scatterbrained, honestly."

"Oh! Well…" She hesitated, but said, "I don't know if you'll like it, but I have plenty of tea… You're welcome to have some if you want."

"Great! So I'll see you in ten minutes!"

She turned to leave, but Marianne's voice caught her at the door. "Hilda..."

"Yes?"

"U-Um..." Marianne ducked her head, but she clenched her fists and raised her chin. "You're not scatterbrained at all! You're so kind and considerate… and you're great at organising things… a-and you've helped me so much even when I didn't deserve it! So… you shouldn't say bad things about yourself like that."

Hilda heart kind of melted. _Oh, Marianne… _"You're very sweet, but you don't have to praise me for all those things. That's just what you do for friends."

"Friends…?"

"That's right! Because we're friends," Hilda said. "Any time you need something, you can rely on me, okay?"

Marianne blushed and looked down at her feet again, but Hilda caught a glimpse of a smile before she did so. "Alright, I'll… I'll try to be a good friend, too."

"Good." She might not see it, but Hilda couldn't help smiling back. "So kitten talk and tea in ten, okay?"

Marianne nodded. "I'd like that."


End file.
